There's no way you're my grandfather
by Shiro Arceus
Summary: Link was having trouble learning the back slice, so the hero's shade let him take a short break together, where Link learnned a shocking truth about The hero's relationship wit him-as a family. NOT LINKCEST/SHOUNEN-AI just fatherly OoT Link to TP Link. Chapter 2-epilogue and the hero's goodbye.
1. Chapter 1

Sooo yeah, this popped up in my mind after I read about the theory of the hero's shade being Link's father. But the time lapse is too far to be on a father-son relationship, so, since I also called the hero's shade 'grandfather', here is a little drabble I wrote about it, enjoy.

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The Hero's shade had always been a mystery to him. He taught him the 'teachings of old' (so he says) and always taught him until he really get it- never get frustated no matter how many times he fail. He came as a golden wolf and go as a stalfos. His teachings has been quite useful up until now, the finishing attack, the shield bash... Although Link learned those quite easily and with ease, this move-the back slice-is really what he would call frustating. He's been trying for hours (though he don't know how much time had passed, he at least felt as if it has been hours) but to no avail. And the hero's shade just won't let him go back once he said he wanted to learn the move. So now, for what had felt like the thousandth time, He fell on his back yet again. He failed to roll to the right and his attack was perfectly blocked by the stalfos's shield. Just. Great.

"You have to roll to my back and then attack. Master this and the move shall be yours." The Shade said again for, Link thought, the hundreth time.

"Aaagghhh Give me a break! This is not working! I can't do this!" Link didn't even bother to stand up, rather, he just sat where he was with a frustated look clearly seen on his face. His teacher, the hero's shade, only replied with a calm, patient tone.

"You just have to focus and roll carefully to my back, it is quite hard at first but once you get it-"

"_**It's not working, Okay?!**_"

Link snapped and shouted out aloud, cutting the hero's sentence half-way. In an instant, their surroundings were filled with nothing but silence. The fog didn't clear up one bit and carry the sounds of the forest, filling the silence with an eerie atmosphere surrounding it. Link remained his position on the ground, looking at his feet. He was frustated, but he didn't mean to shout. Hero's shade must be pretty shocked too. It really isn't like him to snap like that.

"Come here. Let's take a break." Link lifted his head up to his teacher's voice. He stood up, unsheathed his sword and followed the shade to what seems to be like a river, surrounded with lively greens around it. He walked there and sat on its edge along with the shade. Link then grabbed out an empty bottle and filled it up with the water flowing in the river. Hero's shade had told him once that, this place is the spirit world. Right now in the real world, no time had actually passed since it was only his spirit that came here. The spirit world he is at right now took on the form of Hyrule in the era of Hero of time. He also said that the river water is clean enough to drink, so it should be okay to take a sip. After taking some water, Link sat down and looked down once again, still a bit ashamed of his outburst. He was angry at some childish problems and out of frustation. Midna would made fun of him non-stop if she saw this. But he is an adult now- well 16, to be exact. But at least he had to take responsibility too for his actions. "I... Uh... I'm sorry for shouting..."

"It's okay. I know how frustating it was to learn a new move."

Link's face was now lifted up and filled with relieve that he wasn't dissapointed nor angry with him. He didn't know why, but being with the Hero's shade, he always feel a bond with him, it was as if he will be safe around him. Seeing the atmosphere had brighten, he decided to asked the shade some trivial question he always had in mind. "I was wondering. How do you look like when you were the hero of time?" Link said, drinking his water. He couldn't see the Hero's expression behind his helmet, but he swore he saw a smile before the hero lifted his helmet, where his flesh was now no longer bones and spines, but flesh. Although this is a drastic change (he is a spirit anyway), what really shocked Link isn't how the hero was missing an eye, it wasn't how his blonde hair was tied up in a ponytail- it was that_ his face is so identical so his_.

The hero gave a small chuckle. "Surprised?"

Link couldn't say a word. He stared in shock to his teacher's face. He muttered a bit before finally calmed himself and asked. "You-Your face- I, I mean- you-my-" He was completely speechless that he wouldn't stop pointing at the hero's and his own face. "Ho-how can your face be so identical to mine?!"

"Well..." The shade turned to face him and a slight mischievous smirk-unlikely of him (to Link, at least)- appeared on the corner of his lips as he played around with his helmet on one hand. "Our faces aren't the only thing we have in common. Wanna know my name when I was the hero of time?"

Link shakes his head with a disbelieved look, thinking that only this was enough to made him pass out anytime right now. Despite his disagreement, the Hero's shade told him his name anyway.

"Link."

Link-um, younger Link.- dropped his jaw to the ground with a totally shocked and disbelieved look. He tried to composed himself and tried to process this new bit of information. "Uh- I- I mean- wait, why would anybody in the whole world-_ especially a hero like you_- had the same, uncreative, 4-letter name like me?!"

Hero Link (shade)'s mischievous smirk came back to his face. "Oh I don't know, maybe it was because _you_ were named after_ me_?"

"But I was named after my _grandfather_! My father told me that hims-!" Link stopped his sentence half-way. Wait. Grandfather? Link? "... You've got to be kidding me."

Hero Link's smirk turned into a laughter after seeing Link's reaction. "Well hello there,_** grand s**_on." He said as he wiped a tear from his eye.

Link remained speechless on his spot. He had heard from his late dad that his grandfather was the former king of hyrule, married to queen Zelda at the time, but his father decided to find a new place rather than living life in royalty and found himself the village of Ordon, but this is too freaking much of a info he had to process. Like, this guy is actually his grandfather?! Oh Farore fierce fucking deity you've got to be kidding. The fact that he's a chosen one, the fact that he could turn into a wolf, the fact that there's a princess he himself had to save, the fact that there's an imp accompanying him in his journey, he can accept. The fact that_** HE**_ is his grandfather? He_ cannot _accept. "Wait... If you're my grandfather..."

"Yeah."

"And you were married to the late queen Zelda..."

"Yes."

"And that would mean that Zelda is your granddaughter too..."

"Mm-hmm..."

"Then that means..." Link's face was turning pale as he finally reached a conclusion he would rather not know. Hero Link's face turned into a smile and patted Link's back.

"Hey don't worry cousins can still get married."

"WHA-that's not what I -!" Link's face turned bright red as the cold armor patted his back.

"Come on, let's continue." The shade stood up and wore his helmet again, doing his best to hold his laughter in as he walked to their practice grounds again, followed by an unamused, blushing Link.


	2. Epilogue, and the hero's goodbye

JUST ANOTHER REMINDER THIS CHAP IS ALSO_** NOT**_ LINKCEST OR TWIxTIME. IT IS ONLY FAMILY FLUFFS AND FATHERLY OOT LINK.

_**Disclaimer: LoZ is the copyright of Nintendo and all the people involved in making it.**_

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Ever since he had told Link his true identity as Link's grandfather, the boy had been coming more frequently. He started to search for howling stones diligently, instead of ignoring it and saying 'he can do it later'. Although he does search for the stones and come more frequently, his visit was now much more longer than the previous ones. Instead of learning and mastered the move right away, he'd usually just talked about his journeys out there. About his problems, his experience, about how he missed his cats, how Midna teased him for screaming when he saw a chu... He told him all about his day. The shade himself doesn't particularly mind, in fact, everytime Link said he wanted to take a break and talk with him, He gladly accept and took off his helmet.

Their relationship had grown from the simple teacher-disciple relation to a more family-like father-son relation. They'd laugh together when Shade made a joke for him, and he'd comfort and give Link advice when he's down. Though Link's still sometimes unamused by his joke about his relation with Zelda, he also enjoyed the time he spent with him. They can understand each other-even more than the other, sometimes. They both don't know their father well, nor their mother. Shade had only experienced fatherhood for a short while. His son left for Ordon while the other focused on being the next queen of the country. He never experienced actual fatherhood, both his son and daughter was too focused on something they were next to never spent time with him. But Link was different. He saw him as both a friend and a son. He came to see him almost too quickly, everytime he came his eyes brightened up like a puppy seeing a ball to play with. His story also ranged, telling him about how Hyrule was in this era. Once it was about how he yelled in surprise the first time he saw a chu-he never saw a worm that big before. Link also told him about how this guy with the name 'Fyer' always emphasized the word 'height' as if it was sarcasm meant for him, He was never very confident about his height (not that he blamed him). There were a time where he told him about the snowpeak ruins, where there were this 'cute matryoshka-like yeti' (so he says) and then suddenly, because of the mirror of twilight she was turned into a monster-something he jumped out of shock for (must be terrifying). He also told him about how ridiculous it was when he fought armagohma, the only thing left was an eyeball! It wasn't even attacking, just running around the room, while he just stood where he was, cursing the eyeball for ruining his epic moment. The eyeball turned out to be a heart container, though. There were also times when he talked about how bad his day was. He told him about this childhood friend of his with the name 'Ilia'. Apparently she had lost her memory, and she always talked to him like a complete stranger. It was relieving for him to know that she regained her memory back from Link's next visit.

He hoped the move he had to taught was more than just seven. The last move he had taught Link was the great spin attack. He still remember that day clearly, it was the time Link said he was going to go to the palace of twilight. The moment he said that the move had been passed down, Link's eyes were sad and gloomy. It wasn't an unamused look he made when he was teased, nor the angry look when he heard something that teases his height, it was a look of sadness, like how he didn't want it to end. All shade can do was stared back with a bitter smile and took off his helmet and ruffled Link's hair. "You can still come here if you ever found me as a wolf, though."

At that statement, Link's face turned back to his old self, and got angry at the shade, saying something like 'why didn't you tell me sooner?!' Or to the lines. In the end, they stayed and talked a bit after getting tired of fighting and laughing, laying down on the grass, and he teased Link about Zelda _again_. Link didn't move due to his tiredness, but only saying "I'm gonna get you next time.", and he replied with a slight chuckle, putting his hand on his forehead to cool him down.

Since then, he came back even more often. He somehow managed to found him out during his journey to help those people, hoping to get a heart piece as his reward. Now, all his intention of coming was solely just to talk with him. He said he was helping people to get heart pieces, hence why he didn't went inside Zant's palace right away after filling light into the master sword. Link hoped for it to be able to light outside of twilight, though. Said it would probably be good for a lantern's replacement.

After that, after he said he was done collecting heart pieces, Link continued on to Zant's palace. He fought him, and then ganondorf. It was no easy task, but he managed. After all was done, Link was actually hoping to go search for the Hero's shade right away, to talk about his experience of the day- how he defeated Ganondorf, how Midna left and broke the mirror, how he was able to 'revive' Zelda, there was so much to talk and share with his teacher, but he and Zelda were very tired- and he knew that personal matters can wait. He had to bring Zelda back to Hyrule castle town. (curse Midna for not warping him back to Hyrule castle before she left.)

When they arrived back at castle town, the sun had set and twilight had arrived-reminding him of a sad turn of events with his former companion-, Zelda went into the town cheered by crowds of people. Zelda greeted her people gracefully, and introduced them to their savior, Link, whose face were as red as a tomato as he entered the castle gate with Epona. Zelda had offered Link to stay at the castle for the night, for a trip back to Ordon would be pretty much impossible in the current state they're in. Link, though at first denied, finally accepted after he remembered that she is his cousin and all, might as well spend some time together (the shade's word from the break when learning the back slice bugged and made him blushed everytime Zelda was near, though.).

That night, His blue eyes stayed open for some time, turning left and right on his bed with only his usual tunic-minus the chaimail. He thought of only wearing his white shirt and pants, but it was surprisingly cold inside, so he decided to put on his tunic too and pulled the blanket over to his chin. Just as he was finally getting tired, another noise caught his attention; it was the door's creaking noise. Staring at it for a moment, he threw the blanket aside and went out to the door. Where he saw a familiar light shining out in the hallway. Link moved forward a few steps, making the source of the light turned its face to face Link's. It was all but strange for him. A golden wolf, shining out in the darkness, its pale blue eyes stared right back at his. His face brightened up and proceed to walk towards the beast. The wolf, surprisingly, ran down the hallway and made a turn inside the big castle. Not sparing a moment, Link chased down the beast all over the castle.

It wasn't really that hard, chasing skullkid was much more harder than this, what's with all those skeleton-puppets it summoned.

His bare feet screamed to get back to the warm bed as he ran over the cold stone of the palace floors, but he didn't care. All he had in his eyes was now the golden beast in front of him. The light turned left from the hallway, and Link followed it quickly. Only stopping when he had met an enourmous palace-sized doors leading to the balcony. Hesitating at first-he didn't know why-, he opened the door slowly and went out, closing it behind him and focused his attention on the back of the shade, standing on the edge of the balcony. At first, he was caught off guard by the fact that the shade came with his human form out here in the living world, but slowly approached the back of his teacher.

The shade turned to his back to face him. He was now in his hero of time form, with a face people would mistake for Link's. Although one of his eye was still missing and he doesn't wore the usual armor anymore, even though he wore a green tunic with white inner shirt and pants now, Link knew for sure this is him. Its not anybody else. Questions ran through his mind, why is he out here in his flesh form? Why doesn't he wear his usual armor? Why does he... Smile so bitterly at him?

"I know what you're going to say." The shade broke the silence between them. "There's something I need to talk about."

Link walked over to the edge of the balcony and stood beside the shade, his expression clearly showing uneasiness and worry. "What happened?"

"Well... First of all..." The older blond-haired stared out to the balcony and took off his green hat, letting the cold night breeze sway through his hair. "You do know that your purpose as a hero is now complete, right?"

"I don't really know but if defeating ganondorf ends my role as the hero, I guess so..."

The shade sighed and looked out with sadness clearly seen in his blue eyes. "Link, do you know why I, the previous hero, was chosen to teach you?" Link stared back uneasy, he's starting to have a bad feeling about this... The shade continued his sentence. "It was because there was nobody to teach you the ways of a hero in this era. When that happens, the previous hero has to teach the next hero-personally."

Link stared back with growing uneasiness. "Wha-what do you mean?"

"What I mean is that... When the new hero has fulfilled his duty as one... The previous hero can..." He paused for a moment and stared back at Link. "...Can finally rests in peace."

Link's eyes widened. Shock had replaced the worry in his eyes, he stared back with an unbelieving look. "...what?"

"What I mean, is... I can't be here any longer." The shade's smile faded and he stared bitterly at Link. "I have to go."

Link, still in shock of the sudden news, only stared back, unable to say a word since his mind only was going crazy. "Y-you... What? I mean... You-you cant... I-I..." He looked down to his feet, trying to hide his almost fallen tears from the shade.

"...I'm sorry..." The shade patted Link's hair softly before continuing. "I was worried that if you had known the truth, you wouldn't want to fulfill your duty..."

Link only stared at his feet, trying to hide his sobs by biting his lips and not spoke a word.

"...but thank you, Link."

Link lifted his head to see the shade's eyes directly, not caring about the clearly seen tears streaming down his cheek.

"My children... They were both so focused at their own goals, I never spent time with them... And I died not knowing how real fatherhood was like." He ruffled his hair and his smile returned to his face. "But then you came. I was maintaning a formal attitude towards you at the beginning-it was actually to maintain the hero's dignity and pride, actually-" he coughed and averted his gaze from Link's, but quickly returned back to the topic at hand. "You were what had made me experienced real adulthood... We laughed together, we fight... I teach you new moves, you come to me when you had problems, you share your experience with me... It was fun, and I am grateful... Son."

Link couldn't keep his tears anymore, warm streaks rolled down his cheek and sobs began to come out of his mouth. He still tried his best not to let out any other noise, and kept his scream of sadness to himself. Both his hands were curled into a fist and kept on both sides, not knowing where else to go.

The shade's eye were as warm and calm as how he always remember it. His fate was similar to his, as much as how their faces was. His father died when he was little, and his mother died giving birth to him. He grew up not knowing how it was like to have a dad. If only he knew about this, he wouldn't go into the Arbiter's ground so quickly, he wouldn't be so impatient about the misplaced bedroom key, he wouldn't use warps to go everywhere, he wouldn't complain about how slow he walked with the iron boots, he wouldn't... Do anything in a rush. "Come here." The shade stood in front of him, arms open and eyes smiling bitterly right back. Link couldn't keep it in anymore, he let out loud sobs and embraced his teacher tightly, crying his heart out as his hair was stroked gently by the older man.

"I'm sorry... I can't be with you... Son." The shade's eyes closed as warm tears rolled down his cheek, still embracing and stroking Link's hair. "Even when I'm gone... Always remember my advice, okay? Never try to hurt cuccoos, be kind to everybody, and more importantly... Make your move on that princess, already." He let out a small chuckle in the middle of his tears. "And always remember... I'm always here, even if you can't see me, I'm always there, beside you..." He finally let out a sniffle and continue to stroke Link's hair.

Link's sobs gradually soften and he finally looked up to him and spoke. "I-I... I will... I..." He sobbed again. "...I-I will become a knight! I won't- I won't let the land you had protected go into sorrow! I-..." He stared back down before looking back up after a few sobs. "...I won't forget you,___Dad_..."

The shade smiled back at him and hugged him tightly. "You will do great, I know it." Tears kept streaming down with every blink of his eyes. "You have grown into a fine man...Link." He stroked his hair one last time, before his body began to fade away.

_"Thank you... And good bye, Son..."_

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A/N: Yeah I know... How did a story like the first one turned to this? I don't really know either... I'm so sorry I-... Who wanna board the feels train with me? :'(

Reviews are greatly appreciated!


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